The St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) Scholarship Programme boasts twenty-six (26) members. Of those, four new students and one bursary recipient were added this year.
The new students were welcomed to the programme as part of the recently held annual LUCELEC Scholarship Social where top performers Abbie Pultie, Yolanda Ambrose and Chelsea Branford – were recognised for their achievements in the previous academic year.
Open to children of employees who are successful at the Common Entrance examinations, the LUCELEC Scholarship programme began in 1985 and has to date benefitted more than one hundred children. The programme pays for all school fees, uniforms, school books, school bags, notebooks, CSEC and CAPE exam fees throughout secondary school and the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College.
The Scholarship Social is held to induct new entrants into the programme, recognize the students’ achievements to date, and motivate the students for the new academic year. Chairperson of the Scholarship Committee Mrs. Miguelle James had high praise for the returning members of the scholarship programme whom she said performed better than the previous academic year.
“We started the year with 25 students and we unfortunately had to withdraw two students from our programme this year and one has been placed on probation going into this academic year. Although this is not the best news, I note this is an improvement over last year and I am hoping that next year I will be able to announce that no student has been withdrawn from the programme and no one is on probation. Overall and for the rest of the students we continue to be encouraged by your high performance. Please keep it up,” says Mrs James.
For the first time, students attended the Scholarship Social in school uniform. LUCELEC Managing Director Trevor Louisy said this presented a unique opportunity for those in higher forms in the same school to mentor students in lower forms. Mr. Louisy also spoke of the “Late Bloomer” component of the company’s Scholarship Programme.
“Some of us, we develop at a later stage compared to others and so maybe when we get to Form Two that’s when everything begins to click in our minds and we begin to perform at a certain level and we accept kids coming into the Programme whether it’s at Form 2, 3, 4 or 5 once they exhibit that level of performance,” he says.
To maintain the scholarship each student must achieve a minimum 65% grade in each subject and an overall average of 70%.
The Scholarship Social was held at the LUCELEC Power Station in Cul-de-Sac under the theme, “Paving the way to higher education and better learning”.
